


some truths can save us, some take our lives

by JayQueenofHugs (bifangirl)



Series: YDYD Drabbles [3]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Minecraft, Canon Temporary Character Death, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Past Character Death, Time Travel, YDYD AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 10:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18342122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bifangirl/pseuds/JayQueenofHugs
Summary: Time travel is a strange phenomenon. Oftentimes, those involved will end up with déjà vu, but nothing more. But sometimes, memories will seep through in the forms of haunting dreams.





	some truths can save us, some take our lives

**Author's Note:**

> The third drabble in my YDYD series!  
> Spoilers for YDYD s2 up to e3  
> As always, thanks to Ella_May_Lowell for her help!  
> Title is from South by Sleeping At Last
> 
> CW: Descriptions of drowning

_ Time travel is a strange phenomenon. Oftentimes, those involved will end up with déjà vu, but nothing more. But sometimes, memories will seep through in the forms of haunting dreams. _

  
***   
  


Michael isn’t too sure what happened, but his time in the afterlife reveals more than anyone could know. The barriers between reality falter and he learns the truth.

  
  
He watches as their life on the island begins, Geoff immediately assigning rules and giving instructions. He watches as nearly everyone ignores the instructions, wandering off almost 

 

Immediately. He watches other him volunteer to be on the dig team, watches Ryan lecture him on killing a pig.

 

He discovers a ravine, watches Fredo stand right on the edge while Jeremy creates a waterfall down. He watches as the cave is explored and there are several near-death experiences. He feels like he’s watching a movie until all his memories come back.

 

He remembers Ryan venturing into the cave, his panicked shouts as he tries to flee a skeleton but is shot down over and over again. He remembers the cries of his friends as they panicked, not knowing what to do. He remembers Jeremy drowning, everyone’s confusion and grief at that moment.

 

He remembers the ensuing chaos, everyone running around and shouting. And then there’s nothing after that as time is reset.

 

_ (Some of his memories fade after he’s brought back to life, but they always show up in dreams.) _

 

***

 

Gavin feels like there’s something he’s missing, something that happened to change behaviours. His dreams manage to fill in some of the gaps.

  
  
He often finds himself in the island ravine, exploring it for the first time. He’s on Dig Team  _ (whatever that means) _ and he’s with some of the others. He’s not sure who’s there, it varies from time to time. He sees the dangers of the ravine, witnesses many near death scenarios he doesn’t quite remember.

 

He knows the dangers of the ravine, they try to warn the others. Someone  _ (he thinks it’s Ryan) _ doesn’t listen, someone dies in there. Someone else dies not much later in an unlikely way.

  
  
He wakes up in confusion, the dreams quickly fading from his mind.

 

_ (Turns out ghosts can see through reality. All of a sudden, everything becomes comprehensible.) _

 

***

 

Ryan isn’t sure what death feels like, but his dreams give him a taste of what it’s like.   
  


He’s in a ravine, someone in the background telling him not to go there. But he still goes anyways and it’s a terrible idea. He tries to flee, to swim up a waterfall, to get away from the danger  _ (but he never sees what’s there, not in his dreams) _ .

 

He can never swim fast enough, he never makes it far. He feels an arrow pierce him  _ (what else could it be?) _ , feels himself fall down and then try to escape again. He barely gets any further before he’s hit by another arrow.

  
  
He doesn’t see anything as his vision  _ (is it his vision though?) _ begins to fade and he falls back down into the ravine a final time.

  
  
He wakes up in confusion, feeling phantom pain from the arrows.

 

_ (After his actual death, he wonders if the current timeline is better or worse.) _

 

***

 

Jeremy sometimes has nightmares of drowning. Nothing is clear, all he knows is he went searching for  _ something _ .

 

He knows he’s running out of air but he’s  _ so close _ to the surface and he can see it, he’s almost there. He feels panic, uncontrollable fear causing him to lose air faster. He kicks his legs desperately, trying to reach the surface, trying to get  _ air _ . Eventually he gives in and takes a breath. He can feel the water in his lungs, but he can’t bring himself to care. His vision goes dark as he sinks back down to his watery grave.

 

He always wakes up gasping for breath, spluttering and coughing. He’s never quite sure what the dreams mean, but he makes sure to steer clear of the water just in case.  _ (A justified decision, if Michael’s death has anything to say about it.) _

 

He never tells anyone about his dreams, but he thinks he may have developed a fear of the water.  _ (At least he can always blame it on the Drowned if anyone asks about it.) _

 

_ (Maybe death would make things clearer. Maybe he shouldn’t stay away from the water.) _

 

***

 

Jack knows about time travel, or at least acknowledges it as a possibility. His dreams confirm that, though indirectly. What else could explain the different yet familiar world he finds himself in every night?

  
He’s always on the island, but there’s no home built yet, no farm or compass directions. No one leaves the island to explore except for Jeremy. All the exploring is done in the ravine, a dangerous place with only one entrance and exit.

  
The waterfall doesn’t go too well with multiple people on it at once, but it’s the best they’ve got for the time being. He wishes it wasn’t, he knows how bad it is. Everything is going fine, everyone is surviving and doing their jobs. Yet nothing good lasts forever and it turns bad very quickly.

  
First, it’s the ravine. No one bothered to fix the waterfall and that fatal mistake cost lives. Then, it’s exploration. No one is happy, no one is calm, everyone embodies panic and grief and chaos.

  
He wakes up there knowing there’s no way it could be real, the current survivors include the dead in the dream world.

  
_ (He wishes he could reset the world and save his friends.) _   
  


***

 

Geoff just wants to survive, wants to keep everyone alive and happy on their island. Apparently that’s all his dream-self wanted as well. He dreams of their island, a calm place with no house yet built. He sees himself  _ (or is he seeing through his own eyes?) _ gather everyone around, explaining the situation.

  
He assigns everyone roles but half of them end up on Dig Team while the other half just does whatever they want. Exploration is going well and construction has begun on their house, everything is going just fine. There are a few close calls but he’s not sure who almost dies.

  
Not long after they start, however, a crisis occurs. Someone dies, shot by a skeleton while exploring the ravine. Someone who wasn’t on Dig Team. There’s another death by an explorer soon afterwards. Maybe they should have listened to him.

  
He wakes up feeling slightly frustrated, wondering how things would change if people were more cautious and actually listened to him for once.

  
_ (The afterlife only provides him with more confusing information. He misses being alive.) _

 

***

 

Dreams aren’t Trevor’s friends and he doesn’t think they ever will be. He is constantly plagued by strange flashes, lost in a dream world. He sees his least favourite island, devoid of key landmarks. He wonders where the house is, where all the sheep are.

  
He finds himself unable to control his actions, it’s as if he’s watching a movie in VR. He’s wandering around, acting like he’s possessed by a demon, watching as his friends explore the unfamiliar world. He watches someone  _ (is that Geoff?) _ explain some things, assign roles that no one pays attention to.

  
He  _ (dream-him) _ explores the ravine with a group of the others calling themselves “Dig Team”. He is faced with monsters, he watches as his friends make risky decisions by jumping in to the ravine. He witnesses a creeper nearly blow up Alfredo. And then, all of a sudden, he’s not in his body anymore.

  
He remains in the ravine, unable to move. Ryan  _ (at least he thinks it’s him) _ ventures down there only to be attacked on the way down. Something more happens, something unclear, but then Ryan’s dead and all of a sudden Jeremy is too.

  
Chaos follows, but that’s unsurprising.

  
He wakes up and tries to pretend everything is fine.

  
_ (He doesn’t care what the dreams mean, he just wishes he could bring all his friends back.) _   
  


***

 

All Alfredo wants is to have fun, not deal with nightmares every night. Ever since the first night, since day one, he’s been having the strangest dreams.

  
They’re always on the island, but key events have changed. He’s exploring the ravine, reliving events that never happened. He’s swimming up a waterfall while Michael  _ (but Michael’s dead) _ screams about a creeper behind him. Sometimes he sees things from someone else’s eyes.

  
Someone is diving deep into the ocean, diving down to collect a chest. He recognizes the place, but it was him who explored it and he didn’t drown trying. Someone is swimming up a waterfall, trying to escape a monster. The situation is familiar, but he wasn’t shot by a skeleton at all. Someone is building a house but he’s never built anything in his life. Someone is killing a turtle but he would never do that.

  
He wakes up a bit panicked, but relaxes when he notices the familiar surroundings.

  
_ (They’re just weird dreams, best to forget them.) _

 

***

 

Matt wonders if time travel could possibly be real. What else could explain his dreams? After all, nothing in them is possible in his reality. They aren’t always coherent, but some details remain the same.

  
Sometimes he’s on the island, sometimes he’s who-knows-where. Sometimes he witnesses the events firsthand, sometimes he hears them in the background. But in every single dream, Ryan and Jeremy die in quick succession.

  
He never knows how they die, it varies from time to time. All he knows is that they always die and the dreams always end there. There’s a brief moment of chaos, screams that echo in his mind before he wakes up.

  
He wakes up with a headache from the panic, feeling confused about what he witnessed.

 

_ (He’s glad the afterlife clarifies things. After all, he knows he died for Ryan in this reality so Ryan can’t be dead. Until he is.) _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, sorry it's so late!  
> The final drabble will be up tomorrow!


End file.
